Tuesday, September 30, 2014

....Kale sends
around 2,000 kits each month - containing one mifepristone and four
misoprostol tablets - to women who live in nations where abortion is
either banned or restricted.....These are two of the 1,500 compounds that
Kale sells, generating an annual revenue of $4.5 million - but no profit
with an option for patients to donate 90 euros....And the need
is enormous. Nearly 40 percent of the world's population lives in
nations where abortion is banned or restricted making it a major health
concern for women....
....Can men be feminists? While the long form answer can get complicated the short form is simple enough. The answer is yes, if men are interested in complete equality between men and women. Setting reproduction aside, a woman should have the same rights (and responsibilities) as a man in all other functions and aspirations (yes we know that there are other genders out there, equality for them as well).

Then again if people feel that as per this definition humanism = feminism (and we agree) then it may be preferable to call ourselves (flawed) humanists.

How about reproduction and the specific question related to the medical termination of pregnancy (MTP aka abortion)? Again the long form answer is complicated (see below) but the short answer is that the final call is wholly the woman's (to pull the trigger or not).
.....

Sunday, September 28, 2014

....USCIRF@USCIRF Hindu Nationalist Group Seeking to Cleanse Christian Presence From #India Is Not Unlike ISIS, Watchdog Group Warns......David B. Cohen@DavidBCohen1 "Watchdog" group likens BJP to ISIS, proving they've no moral compass. Moral equivalence is not moral, nor is @USCIRF......
....
The argument continues about the curious case that was the 2005 US VISA ban imposed on Narendra Modi as directed by the US Commission on Internal Religious Freedom (USCIRF, see tweet above). The ban was quite unique in its application (apart from Nelson Mandela* back in the day and more recently Prabowo Subianto of Indonesia, see link below for details). There have been (naturally) speculations as to how it came about, and what was the specific role of (american, expat) evangelical Christians.

Interestingly enough, American colonial policy makers have chosen to segregate India (under supervision of the US Pacific Command- PACOM) and Pakistan (US Central Command- CENTCOM). Why is that? Well, we think we know.

The desired impact (of the ban) was to make Modi unacceptable to (and unelectable by) Indians. But that was not how the cookie crumbled. If left alone it was quite likely that Modi would have faded away, similar to how BJP lost in Uttar Pradesh under the pincer attack of Mulayam Yadav and Mayawati. But the humiliation imposed from outside led his own people to see him as a victim. It was Gujarati asmita that helped deliver three in a row victories to the state-house.
....

....PIO (Person of Indian Origin)...will get lifelong visas...thousands of cheering Indians at Madison
Square...."Happy?" he asked...chants of "Modi, Modi"....."There is even more to come," he said....
....
People often ask: what is the point of democracy? It is simple really, it confers legitimacy on the rulers as no other system would. Narendrabhai Damodardas Modi is Prime Minister for all of India (even if many Indians did not vote for him, they accept the system which elected him).

This is why as many as 50 senators and congressmen (names?) greeted Modi in the "Garden" on a Sabbath Sunday, while just one year ago he was not even allowed to set foot on American soil.

People will (rightly) complain that democracy is helping legitimize majoritarian rule (if not legitimizing crimes committed in their name). The answer is however not to abandon democracy but to fight for a country with better protection for minorities. In other words India needs to transition from an illiberal democracy to a liberal one. That is a work in progress, and it is true even for ancient regimes (for example, see Ferguson, Missouri, where a police officer was shot on Saturday night...a fallout over the race riots earlier).
......

.....Khorasan historical region....northeastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, northern Afghanistan.... established by the Sasanian dynasty, the last Iranian empire before the rise of Islam, in the 3rd century...."The Land of the
Sun," a reference to its eastern location.....
...

...
These days people are engaged in branding exercises in order to foster some or other group identity. The trick is to build up a platform that has some basis in culture and in history and try to shoe-horn your agenda in a manner that makes it acceptable to a substantial fraction of elites and sub-alterns.

As an example consider the two principal sub-continental politico-social-cultural brands: Hindutva and Islam. For the record, we are not a fan of either brand because we consider religion to be a divisive force and that in our opinion it should be banished from the public square.

What is the Hindutva agenda and how is it helpful towards brand building? Take a specific example: the movement to protect cows (and as an extension promote vegetarianism). The cow occupies a special place in the Hindu pantheon, especially the association with Krishna and the Yadava clan (even in modern day Mumbai the milk supply chain management in our colony as well as many others is a Yadava monopoly).

For the recent Lok Sabha polls Amit Shah deployed this save the cows strategy to weaken the Muslim-Yadava alliance in Bihar. Perhaps due to this (as well as many other factors), Lalu Yadav lost, big time (he is back on his feet again, having set up a grand alliance with Nitish Kumar and the Congress).
....

Saturday, September 27, 2014

....concept of a historic Silk Road by which camel
caravans wend among the mountains and deserts of Central Asia ....re-establishing maritime networks...Chinese Admiral Zheng He...naval armada across
the Indian Ocean.....China’s leaders promote ancient
trade routes...emphasize role as a harbinger of peace and prosperity.....minor problem....history is distorted........Who is Professor Sen?...Prof Amartya Kumar Sen of Shanti-niketan, Delhi School of Economics, Cambridge and Harvard represents the old guard in his (sincere) attempts to bring South Asian Hindus and Muslims together. Now is the age of Hindi-Chini shadow boxing, and the man who is best informed about the thought processes of our Chinese overlords is Prof Tansen Sen of Peking University, University of Pennsylvania and Baruch College.
....

.....Tansen Sen is the author of Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600-1400 (University of Hawai'i Press, 2003) and co-author (with Victor H. Mair) of Traditional China in Asian and World History (Association for Asian Studies, 2012). ...He has edited Buddhism Across Asia: Networks of Material, Cultural and Intellectual Exchange (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2014) and guest-edited special issues of China Report ("Kolkata
and China," December 2007; and "Studies on India-China Interactions
Dedicated to Ji Xianlin," 2012). With Wang Bangwei he has co-edited India and China: Interactions through Buddhism and Diplomacy: A Collection of Essays by Professor Prabodh Chandra Bagchi (Anthem Press, 2011).
....

While the scholarship is impressive, we confess to be charmed by the name Tansen Sen. ...

... They say that the wheels of justice turn slowly (all of 18 years) but
they grind exceedingly fine- no less a fine than 100 crores and a jail
term of four years. If the Supreme Court does not issue a stay
order (unlikely), Jayalalithaa Jayaram, will lose her status as an
Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) and will be required to dissolve her
cabinet with immediate effect.
.......

....
JJ famously added an "a" to her name on the advice of astrologers (we hope she gets her money back). Sad to say, she was a top-notch student who could have made an
outstanding contribution to society, perhaps as a Mars rocket-woman. But
she got corrupted by her mentor MG Ramachandran (MGR) and then, in her role as Puratchi
Thalaivi (revolutionary leader of the Dravidas) chose to make the whole society corrupt. Her rise and fall mirrors that of Lalu Yadav: first, a sub-altern captain in the army of Jay Prakash (JP) Narayan, then, a new-age Krishna for the Yadavas, and now instrumental in his own deep-dive into ignominy........

Gayathri "Geetu" Mohandas is a talented actor and director from Kerala (she started acting at the tender age of 5 years opposite superstar Mohanlal). She is married to another hot-shot Malayali director (also producer, cinematographer) Rajeev Ravi.
.........

... Geetanjali Thapa is an upcoming Nepali actor from Sikkim. She made her debut with Kamal K.M.’s “I.D.” and won the Best Actor award at the Los Angeles Film Festival as well as the
ImagineIndia International Film Festival. After “I.D.”, she has acted in
“Monsoon Shootout” that premiered at Cannes this year.
.....

...Director Geetu has struck gold with her second film "Liar's Dice" in 2013. Li-Di has received two National Film Awards including, Best Actress for Geetanjali and Best Cinematography for Rajeev. It is also selected to be India's official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for Oscars (Feb 22, 2015). Incidentally, Pakistan's Oscar entry is also a superb, women-centered film: Dukhtar, by Aafia Nathaniel.........

Friday, September 26, 2014

....“No god condones this terror. No
grievance justifies these actions. There can be no reasoning, no
negotiation, with this brand of evil....The only language understood by
killers like this is the language of force.....So the United States of
America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of
death”....
....
As the USA declares total war in the Middle East (again) there are no Christians (or neo-cons) hell bent on a crusade, instead it is just the Central Command engaged in a "lawn mowing" operation against deviant Shias (led by Bashar al Assad) and Sunnis (led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi).

A few (genuine, if non-original) critiques. The #1 coalition "ally" of the USA - the Saudis - behead just as many people as the Caliphate does. They were the prime movers behind 9/11. They keep spreading Salafist poison around the globe, to the extent that some Japanese (!!!) have now joined the islamist brigades. Why not get rid of the head of the snake- the House of Saud?
.........

....a human
rights group has obtained summons...
from the US Federal Court for the Southern District of New York....open letter addressed to Miss America 2014 Nina Davuluri... one of the emcees in
Madison Square Gardens.....“Modi is a lifelong member of the RSS....Hindu nationalist
organization that has praised Hitler...disheartening to know that you will be speaking”...

...

...
A summons from the US Federal Court for the Southern District of New York...that sure rings a bell. The US Attorney for the Southern District is Preet Bharara, the cowboy lawyer who
(allegedly) ordered a top-to-bottom cavity search on Devyani
Khobragade. What is the chance that he and his marshals will NOT attempt to arrest
the "Hitler loving" Modi??

Then again, if Hitler-praise counts as a global standard thought crime (GSTC), Madhav Sadashiv "Guruji" Golwalkar of the RSS has nothing on Haj Mohammed Effendi Amin el-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.The latter was not just a Fuhrer fan, he actually collaborated with the Third Reich (another collaborator/admirer was "Netaji" Subhas Chandra Bose, grand-uncle of Prof Sugata Bose of Harvard and a hero to millions of secular Bengalis).
.....

..."Volleys
of musketry were delivered by us at close quarters, and were returned just as
steadily by the enemy.....In all the previous actions....one or two volleys were as much as the Sirkar's (the British
state's) enemies could stand....these Sikhs gave volley for volley, and never
gave way until nearly decimated "....
...

...As yet another war gets kicked-off in the Middle East, it may be time to reflect on what is gained (and lost) through endless war-mongering. Indians have in particular, suffered from centuries of war imposed upon them both by desi elites and foreign invaders. It also needs to be stressed that without the help of the British Indian army, there would have been no sure path to victory for the allies in 1918 or in 1945.

The post-independence wars have been not been on such a grand scale as Panipat and Ferozepur Ferozeshah (thanks to Athar Saeed for the correction). On the other hand, it is now possible to envisage complete annihilation of the sub-continent, so we are not sure if this counts as progress.
..... Late afternoon on January 14,
1761, Maratha generals and soldiers fleeing the battlefield at Panipat took
with them an indelible memory of Ibrahim Khan Gardi's artillery and musketeers
wreaking havoc on the enemy "like a knife slicing through butter".
Despite their thinning ranks, the French-trained Telangi infantry, who called
themselves Gardis in the honour of their illustrious commander, fought like
true professionals.

...

Though predominantly Muslim, they stayed loyal to the
Brahmin Peshwa and fought a Muslim coalition, ignoring blandishments and
threats till the very end. If all Maratha generals had stuck to the original
plan drawn up by Ibrahim Khan-that of forming a hollow infantry square and
forcing a passage to Delhi by destroying the Afghan right flank-the result of
the Third Battle of Panipat could have been different.
.....

...“I asked my daughter to brush her teeth...no success....reminded her...not so long ago that she would have responded.....She came back....with a list that she had compiled...important events that I had missed due to work commitments”....
....
True story. We recently attended a meeting filled with distinguished (old) people, when one guy suddenly points to another sitting across the table: we are batch-mates from such and such elite institution. When lunch was announced shortly and we were able to mingle the opportunity was not missed to raise an inconvenient point: you guys claim you are batch-mates, yet one has pure silver hair while the other has jet-black. What gives?

The explanation was thought provoking: in each case it was the daughter who insisted that (a) silver hair looks cool, and (b) hair dye is a must in order to preserve that youthful look from decades back.

While greeting a family with a boy-child (as they say) we usually congratulate them by saying that the little angel looks rather calm and peaceful. Most times (99/100) we get a knowing smile and a wink, their harassed faces tell the tale very well. With new dads running around with the girl-child in the park (and the mother safely out of hearing range) we try out a different message (and a different tone): Apurba (we say), you may be able to (barely) escape punishment by not paying enough attention to your wife, but beware, never say no to your daughter (and never forget her birthday). She will remember it decades later (when she chooses your nursing home). Surprisingly enough, not one man disagreed.
.........

....And now we have proof...even those evil bastards...those big shot financiers are softies...when it comes to their daughters. Heartiest congratulations to Mohamed El-Erian...he is undoubtedly the father of the month. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his flesh and blood? May all dads (new and old) learn from this (and not wait till they are in their 50s) and become better men....who make the world a better place to live in. Bravo!!! .........

It is not just a popular put-down in India......one close family member was hit with a variation of this (by a member of the academic tenure-track progress committee in the USA as part of a seemingly casual conversation).....so, what has been your contribution so far?....what do you do all day??.....within a few months he was asked to leave.....thankfully he was fore-warned (and fore-armed with a tenured position, no less)......
.....

...the major turning points in your life? Ankur....the parallel cinema movement. Arth...the women's rights movement.......hunger strike with Anand Patwardhan...built
tenements for 50,000 slum dwellers at Chandivli ......could not have a child....I was heartbroken....Zoya and Farhan...their mother was generous
in letting us have access to them.....And I got
the man! .....
....

...
When it comes to the best (hindi) film actors (women) there will be many deserving candidates. Going by (Filmfare) awards won (and nominated) it would be Jaya Bhaduri (Bachhan), Nutan Samarth (Behl) and Kajol Mukherjee (Devgan). We have a soft spot for Smita Patil (Babbar) and we feel that but for her untimely death she would have been the best. Then there is Comrade Sayyida Shabana Azmi, who first starred with Ankur (The Seedling), a Shyam Benegal film in 1974. We wish Shabana didi (apu) all the best as the years go by.
........

...Only one cloudy lining in an otherwise brilliant blue sky (and we think Azmi recognizes this herself- see interview below). There are (we believe) a few red lines in life. You are not a (human) man if you rape. You are not a child anymore when you pick up a gun and torture others (yes, we know that indoctrination is to blame).

Likewise do not call yourself afeminist if you steal another woman's husband and continue to brag about it three decades on (yes, we know that the man is equally responsible). If feminism has a creed it should be: sisters first do no harm (to another sister).....

...Wise people (liberals) tell us that it is a sin to be parochial. We have no doubt that they mean well. The (bong) poet has said that under this (brown) skin, both Hindus and Muslims have the same red blood flowing in their veins (arteries). Personally speaking, we would be delighted to live in a world beyond parochialism but this is not what we have right now.

Our policy is to tread the middle ground (as we see it). We celebrate identities but we do not approve of divisiveness.If that sounds weird, we are curious about your background but that is just because we do not know you. We have nothing to say about self-affixed labelings. If Barrack Obama counts his missing African dad to claim African-Americanship (while discounting the pale-ness of the maternal grand-parents who nurtured him) then we accept that at face value.

As long as people respect the fundamental truths (but many do not) that (1) we all came from a village in East Africa (yes we know, hyperbole) and that the (2) culture in which you are raised will be a huge influence on you and that (3) discriminating against individuals solely based on their background (say caste or sect) is illogical and immoral, we can argue (non-violently) about everything else.

That is a very long prelude to get to the topic at hand: we salute the South Indians who made the Mars Orbital Mission (MOM) a success. Before people get angry and accuse us of parochialism please see discussion above. There are countless groups in India which are subject to ridicule, derision, and even hate (women as a whole are probably the largest group to be so victimized) but it is the "South Indian" alone which causes maximum confusion. How does one go about defining an authentic South Indian?
.....

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

It is the season to be busy at work, so I am unable to write a coherent post but these scattered thoughts were itching to get out:

1. Pakistani anchor Talat has written an interesting piece in Urdu in which the conceit is to start with a long section that sounds like one of Tahir ul Qadri or Imran Khan's speeches and then reveal that it is the Urdu translation of one of Goebbel's speeches.
"These days anyone has the right to speak in Germany — the Jew, the Frenchman, the Englishman, the League of Nations, the conscience of the world, and the Devil knows who else. Everyone but the German worker. He has to shut up and work. Every four years he elects a new set of torturers, and everything stays the same. That is unjust and treasonous. We need tolerate it no longer. We have the right to demand that only Germans who build this state may speak, those whose fate is bound to the fate of their fatherland.Therefore we demand the destruction of the system of exploitation! Up with the German worker’s state!Germany for the Germans!"

This is actually very apt. TUQ is consciously and IK is unconsciously (lacking the smarts to understand such things and easily manipulated by clever men) using this exact line in Pakistan. Co-opting the vocabulary of "revolution", "overthrow of elites" etc created by the Left, the fascist wing of the Paknationalist movement is preparing the ground for an overthrow of democracy and the implementation of a long-held dream: the Chakwal solution. May Allah protect us all.

2. The delegitimization of the 2013 elections continues apace, aided by several media houses (especially the pro-army ARY group, long known for its close links with the hard-paknationalist faction and the intelligence agencies) and feckless mainstream politicians who had made rigging allegations as per the usual Pakistani routine and who now find themselves unable to point out that this election was actually fairer than most Pakistani elections and even if there had been NO irregularities whatsoever, PTI could not conceivably have won (a cursory looks the winning margins and candidates will confirm this fact).
This of course does not mean the election was completely fair. There were many irregularities, (though maybe less than those seen in the last election), with the worst cases in KPK (ANP and PPP unable to campaign thanks to the Taliban lending a hand), interior Sindh (intimidation by local bigwigs) and Karachi (the worst case of all, led by MQM gangsterism)...none of which are a focus of Imran Khan's protest.
So, the election, whose outcome would not have been very different even if most irregularities were avoided, has been delegitimized. The point is to overthrow the system, not to fix it.
This is not rocket science, but it does need to be said again and again.

3. A somewhat parochial point, in that it is a peculiar obsession of mine based on my own history and the background I come from....I recognize that it may not be as important as it looms in my life.....but anyway, here goes: someday Allah may call the Pakistani Left to account for the fact that their main historical role seems to have been to prepare the narrative tropes that are now being used by every right wing force in Pakistan (not just the military-sponsored adventurers, but also the religious parties and even the Taliban); not only has the Left provided the vocabulary (and ALL of the poetry) of "revolution" and "jab taj uchaley jaen gay" (when the crowns are knocked off heads), they have also undermined the intellectual foundations of the (already weak) elite faction that could have stood up for liberal democracy in Pakistan.The middle classes are obviously not all in favor of liberal democracy. They are also a breeding ground for "national-socialism" and religious fundamentalist groups, but the fraction of them that could be expected to argue for liberal democracy is further weakened in Pakistan by the penetration of Marxist-Leninist tropes among people who do not otherwise consider themselves part of the revolutionary Left. This (mostly superficial and shallow) adoption of left-wing narratives and cliches does not imply that most of these people have stopped having servants and maids (god forbid) or have any deep interest in preserving our ancient way of life in the face of evil modernity (quite the contrary, most are looking for "progress and prosperity", just like good middle class people in other third world countries); but to a surprising extent, in Pakistan their narratives about the wold are derived (usually without any detailed knowledge of the source) from relatively small Marxist-Leninist parties and their intellectual fellow travelers. What I am saying is that this superficial and frequently muddled idle talk does seem to have a real effect on the way many educated people see the world and what patterns they impose on it. One of those patterns is a distrust of liberal democracy and a vague yearning for revolution. This leaves their representatives (and many journalists for example fall in this category) seriously handicapped when confronted with clever demagogues condemning liberal democracy and demanding revolution. (I must stress that i am not talking here about the relatively tiny band of deeply committed Marxists and/or Luddites, both groups having serious issues in my opinion, but both having some semi-rational basis for THEIR mistrust of liberal democracy and modern capitalism). Its a convoluted point, and I apologize for not being clearer. But something like this does seem to be going on...and it is handicapping the liberal democrats in the debates that are going on today in Pakistan...

PS: I promised @umairjav that I would rewrite this...Now I dont think I will rewrite this point, just try to clarify it a bit: It is NOT about people who actually worked for Left wing causes or understood (to varying extents) the finer points of Marxist theology. THOSE people are NOT in PTI (for the most part). They can be found in the PPP, the ANP, various Sindhi and Baloch nationalist organizations and so on, but rarely in the PTI. I am aware of that. My dig is not meant to imply that Leftists have themselves become PTI activists (most PTI activists were probably born after the first death of Marxism-Leninism in 1991). No, my thought process went something like this:

The "Left" (especially in Punjab) has very little direct impact on current Pakistani political shenanigans. The first part of the dig is a dig at the surprising irrelevance of the Left.

But thanks to the prominence of the old Left in various cultural spheres and the extraordinary popularity of Leftist talking points (not the same thing as saying "domination of leftist parties or their economic policies") in postcolonial educated people (again, think of it this way: even right wing politicians in our countries absorbed many disembodied memes that had originally been birthed in Marxist or Bolshevik circles as part of a greater whole of "imperialism the last stage of capitalism" type analysis), even these kids have absorbed notions of revolution, revolutionary change and the overthrow of the elites.

Its possible I am overstating the role of the Left in creating these memes. I dont think so at this point (i.e. I dont think I am overstating it), but I am open to this possibility :)

I have either clarified or dug myself deeper into the hole...or both. Got to run...

4. And last but not the least, congratulations India (and particularly the Indian Space Research Organization) on achieving a historic first: a Mars mission that has worked at first attempt. An amazing accomplishment, especially consdiering that they spent less on this mission than Hollywood spends on an average blockbuster movie production. Well done..

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), in Pakistan you cannot see the above videos because youtube is still banned in Pakistan. Allah works in mysterious ways...

....Hamas initially denied any link to the June attack....Last month, the group acknowledged responsibility......"Hamas praises the role martyrs Abu Aysha and Kawasme played in
chasing down Israeli settlers...their assassination
will not weaken the resistance"........The two Hamas lads...so happy to have helped ignite another war, even more happy that 2000 of their own (including small children) have been killed by the enemy (it all comes down to who wins the propaganda war), and now happiest ever in death (to be celebrated as martyrs for all time).

It is an article of faith amongst the (western) Left that an alliance with Islamists will bring down the enemy (and in the long run this prediction may indeed come to be true). We are told that compromise is a dirty word (and the enemy believes in this creed as well). The muslim lands must be liberated at all costs.

Meanwhile back in the real world, Israel is building up alliances with Egypt and Saudi Arabia (and when Kurdistan becomes an independent nation there will be one more all-weather friend). Hamas has been kicked out of Qatar and given shelter in Turkey. The flames in the Central Middle East is visible from space. North Africa is terribly troubled (except for Morocco and Tunisia). Afghanistan is likely to sink deep into mud starting next year. Pakistan is in a precarious position with everyone interested in gaining power (but none so keen on ruling).

It is not that we should ignore the crimes of Israel (and for that matter India) as belonging to some lesser category. But we are not able to discern any constructive message that will make the people in the Middle East North Africa even a tiny bit hopeful (perhaps we are biased and being blinded by hatred). At this rate the world will simply learn to ignore MENA, except for periodic bouts of "lawn mowing" by the Israeli Defense Forces. Fighting thousand year wars with infidels will not bring any peace and over time even the oil fueled prosperity will look like a mirage.
......Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians in the West Bank city of
Hebron on Tuesday and the military said they were members of Hamas
responsible for the killing of three Israeli youths in June, an attack
that led to the Gaza war.
....

Describing himself as a committed unionist of Pakistani-German heritage, he said he had been partly motivated to gamble that much money – the largest political bet in British history and believed to be one of the largest worldwide – because it was good publicity for the pro-UK campaign.

But he added: “The first thing I should say is: don’t try this at home. Perhaps I have a bit of a unique background given what I do given I have been involved in markets and as my daughters tell me, I’m a bit of a data geek and information nerd.”

Nicknamed “Peter” by Vine after he insisted on remaining anonymous, he said he had studied more than 80 polls on the academic referendum website whatscotlandthinks.org, overseen by the Strathclyde University polling expert Professor John Curtice.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Not that I am anti-Chinese. I am also a fan of China. Actually I am a fan of everyone. Why not? In our Indian culture we never got too worked up about faraway places anyway, which I think is eminently sensible. and with the current civlizational crisis in the Islamicate world, much worse may happen in less Chinese countries.But while I can sort of let it go, I dont think the Paknationalist dream of a Chinese-Islamic partnership with Pakistan as China's Muslim enforcer will get away unscathed. I assume they will try to put all of this in the catergory of "American propaganda", but some of it does seem to be true. That could become an issue.

"China’s campaign against separatism and terrorism in its mainly Muslim west has now become an all-out war on conservative Islam, residents here say.

Throughout Ramadan,police intensified a campaign of house-to-house searches, looking for books or clothing that betray “conservative” religious belief among the region’s ethnic Uighurs: women wearing veils were widely detained, and many young men arrested on the slightest pretext, residents say. Students and civil servants were forced to eat instead of fasting, and work or attend classes instead of attending Friday prayers...

btw, those thinking I am joking about the paknationalist dream have not met Pakistani Nationalists of the senior army officer type... See Zaid Hamid for details (paid generously for his efforts by the ISI, as reported by his own ex-accountant). Its a load of crap, but that doesnt mean it doesnt have believers....

And meanwhile, the bombs go off. At least three explosions have been reported in China's Xinjiang province, killing two people and injuring several more, Chinese state media has said.

Shanghaiist reports on Project Beauty: the chinese effort to make Uighur women show their face
Miss Tourism Queen Xinjiang, Finals

....Rahman was born into a family of
struggling Bangladeshi immigrants....Putting himself through Oxford, Cambridge, Munich and Yale, he has been a mathematician, investment banker and international
human rights lawyer........one is often tempted to speculate about
which of the two characters derives from Rahman himself.....Is it the brilliant, Bangladeshi Zafar?....Or could
it be the aristocratic Pakistani investment banker
with no name?....
....

....

In a way (and we accept this with great reluctance) the founding fathers of Pakistan had it right. There is a lot to be said for the creation of a "Medina in South Asia"as the authentic voice of sub-continental Sunni muslims. We have strong reasons to believe that once the memories of the dead and afflicted have faded, the sub-surface links between erstwhile East and West Pakistan will re-assert themselves.
.....

....
It is a shame that the (West) Pakistanis did not really recognize the Bangali muslims as their peers and equals. The gaps are now slowly mending (even as the gap with India and Indians is rising). With the help of imaginative leadership (aided by generous Gulf dollars) a broad coalition of Sunni muslim countries across South Asia (and perhaps even beyond) is possible.

If such a federation comes to life, a huge vote of thanks will be due to ...who else...the imperialist United Kingdom (and the West as an extension). The Brown Muslims of London and New York who feel alienated by Western ways and discriminated by Western elites will be the prime movers in any reconciliation, rapprochement and if it comes to that even the hard work of federation building.

Already Bangla-Pak alliances are popular in the West...and why not? The BMs are defined (and constrained) by what they are and what they are not...not Indians (but browns), not Arabs (but muslims), not Westerners (but living in the West).

While inter-marriage will help, the heavy lifting must be done by powerful, sublime literature that help underline the commonalities between Bangladeshis and Pakistanis and subtly (and not so subtly) highlight the differences with other people.Thus we have "In the Light of What We Know" by Zia Haider Rahman a cultural (and spiritual) sibling of "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" by Mohsin Hamid and one which adds to the growing (and unique) voice of Brown Muslims. May such a thousand flowers bloom.
....

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Indian women (elites) are doing superbly, as may be judged by the 2014 Fortune top-25 list for Asia/Pacific. Worldwide, Indra Nooyi is ranked #3 right after Mary Bara (GE) and Gini Rometty (IBM).

In A/P we have a total of eight Indians out of twenty five. If there is a quibble, there are too many bankers (in the left-liberal world bankers are considered evil) starting with Gail Kelly (Australia, Westpac) at #1.

Then again feminists have forcefully argued that the global recession of 2008 could have been avoided if only there were a band of Lehman Sisters at the steering wheel instead of the mad, bad brother-hood. Taken in that spirit there is much to cheer about the Indian lady-brigade- the Sisters are in charge of half of the assets of the country. It is good to see a world-beating number that you can feel good about. Go team!!!!

In the top ten we have the fav four of Chanda Kochhar (2) of ICICI Bank, Arundhati Bhattacharya (4) of State Bank of India, Nishi Vasudeva (5) of Hindustan Petroleum, and Shikha Sharma (10) of Axis Bank.
.....

....I still remember his analysis....how
thoughtful and well-researched it was.....whenever he was on air, I used to tell my
parents proudly...that’s my professor on TV....I can’t believe that a scholar like him has been shot dead.....It's like losing a father....
...
We are assuming (perhaps wrongly) that since Prof Auj was guest of honour at the Iranian Embassy, he must be a Shia. Ceratinly he can be accused of being a non-conformist.
.......

Mr. Auj, a recipient of a presidential medal of
distinction, was known for his unorthodox views and was fighting a legal
case against the originator of a widely circulated text message that
called him an apostate.....The
professor had issued controversial fatwas (religious decrees) —
pronouncing for example that a Muslim woman could marry a non-Muslim
man, and that women need not remove lipstick or nail polish before
saying their prayers. Such views can cause serious offence to some
conservative Muslims in Pakistan....

......

...This much is true, as Omar has pointed out repeatedly, weapons like the blasphemy law which are shiny and useful will not be put away so easily. It will require a mass movement and a big-hearted man (who can rise above all partisanship).....A
Muslim scholar named Muhammad Shakil Auj who had received death threats
over "blasphemy" allegations was shot to death Thursday
in Karachi, Pakistan. Auj was the dean of Islamic studies at the
University of Karachi, and some of the blasphemy allegations against him
reportedly originated with his colleagues.

... Above all we need to put a stop to the polarization for votesaka match-fixing (all parties do it), it is an un-reliable recipe for success (even if it was not such a despicable one to begin with).Everything considered, Toilets before Temples seems to be the best slogan for a secular nation full of young people which looks to the future and stops worrying (but still caring) about the past.

Top-line Verdict:Fareed Zakaria is mostly impressed by Narendrabhai Damordas Modi and has a few reservations. FZ describes NDM as "among the sharpest" he has met and that FZ "underestimated
him." Also this: "He is very smart, intelligent and focused. He is very driven and
has a long term agenda. He wants to be a statesman at the world stage.
He is a man who looks to the future and not into the past," the CNN
journalist said.
......

...the evolutionary
history of ostriches, emus and rheas does not match the break-up of the
continents....scientists believe that their common ancestor could fly.....New
World monkeys rafted
to South America on a clump of earth.....these three groups
represent 73 percent of the land mammals living there.....
...It was Darwin who first suggested that wolves arrived on the Falklands Islands by floating on icebergs. For making such an extraordinary speculation the greatest biologist ever was criticized in the strongest terms. Now there is fascinating evidence of snakes swimming 120 miles across the open ocean (and many others). Forget the boring old stories of human colonization, this is the exciting new story of animal colonization of the the planet we all call home.
...............

....
We are reminded here of Jurassic Park (the novel) where female dinosaurs had escaped from their habitat and had found a way to breed. Nature - it was famously said - will always find a way.And nature has found a way for creatures as immobile as snails to migrate from one continent to another by clinging on to the feet of birds.
...In June 2000, Alan de Queiroz became curious about an enormous,
ragged-looking garter snake that lived on the tip of Baja California.
Like many other biologists of his generation, de Quieroz had been taught
that species traveled the Earth to new habitats on slowly drifting
continents. ...This snake had relatives on the other side of the Sea of
Cortéz on Mexico’s mainland, and de Queiroz assumed that this population
ended up on Baja 4 to 8 million years ago, when the peninsula split
from the mainland. ...But using a new method based on genetic
sequencing to estimate when the two populations split, he found that it
had occurred in the past few hundred thousand years. In other words, one
or more pioneering garter snakes had probably floated across 120 miles
of open ocean....

Friday, September 19, 2014

....the President was
relieved to have at least one Indian person in the receiving line.....Prime Minister looks at me, and says oh you are Indian, I said
yes...the President nodding approvingly....Prime Minister
Singh asks: Where are your
parents from? I said...Punjab. my dad is from Jullundur.....The Prime Minister said, "Oh, his father and I are from the same place...."

...The Viceroy-elect to India has been declared after long months of intense deliberation: Richard Rahul Verma is a very close associate of the next-in-line-to-the-throne.

... In our opinion this is quite a master-stroke by our overlords. While "yellow" China and Japan are promising filthy cash, here is truly a bonding of souls, "white" and "brown." If proof was ever needed on this point, we point to Exhibit #1: US Congressman Curt "Bollywood lover" Clawson (Florida-19) who got confused by brown skinned officials representing the United States of America.....

....Biswas's lawyer said.....the "honour" of Biswas, Indian diplomats
and India has been "vindicated" with the court order....settlement acknowledged that Biswas was an "honor student" at the time of her "false arrest"....
....
First off, we are very happy that Krittika Biswas has been pronounced innocent and has received civil damages that will go towards restoring her faith in the justice system. However the background story is a bit dark and it should serve as a cautionary example to others.

......
As a stereotype this is at least half true, Indian students in the USA (and elsewhere) will be focused on grades and are expected to do well in studies, while Americans will look at high-school and college as more of a (enriching) life experience.

Indians are unlikely to be familiar with US harassment laws and zero-tolerance codes and the fact that the criminal justice system will not hesitate to take action against elites (unlike in India where things can be hushed up).

As a daughter of a diplomat Krittika Biswas is not a typical case. She benefited from strong support from the Indian diplomatic establishment and (we presume) did not lack in financial backing. This will not be true for middle class Indian kids in search of "US degree" who may be wholly destroyed by their own thoughtless actions or malicious behavior forthcoming from fellow (american) students.

We understand the need for emotional closure (and lawyer-ly hyperbole) but we are uncomfortable about all the drum beating about violated honor being restored of Ms Biswas, Indian Foreign Service and India (it is a bit like how Dr Aafia Siddiqui is described by patriots as a daughter of Pakistan....also unfairly targeted by the Americans). It was a false case against a civilian who was not representing India officially, and the "crime" was probably upgraded due to zero-tolerance principles adopted by US schools.

The (most important) question remains, why was the student who actually committed the crime not charged? Without any other exculpatory information it does lend credence to the charge that the indictment (and arrest) was driven by "ethnicity" and/or a "tragic rush to accuse."
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The British have always loved partition...for other people. In each case the justification was that the sub-nations are unable to co-exist side by side. This is when the British played not an insubstantial role in stoking the communal fires - the (in)famous divide and rule policy.

The two nation theory which is best summarized as "our heroes are their villains" has no doubt been hugely successful....in compounding misery of all the communities involved.. The wrongs of the past should have been dealt with a truth and reconciliation commission (just like in South Africa).

The irony is that separation did not reduce the rancor one iota: Pakistan-India and Israel-Palestine have fought four (official) bitter wars, things are not too much better in Northern Ireland.

But when it comes to Britain herself, the answer was made clear today. Partition is never a solution to the problems, it also makes all of us poor as people. The cultural lines are never clearly drawn and purity is over-rated. Speaking of India specifically, the answer to a prosperous future is to encourage more secularism (and mixed marriages aka love jihad) not to create more ghettos and breed intolerance.

The bad blood that has been created over this partition fight will not (easily) go back into the bottle. The polls are clear on this point: the English now resent the Scots just as much as the Scots look down upon the English. The dividing lines will be sharper once a vote is announced for a Brexit from the European Union. Alex Salmond and Nigel Farage are smart ambitious politicians, they are unlikely to take no for an answer.

All that said we are happy for the Brits. Yes, it is certainly better together.
......Scottish voters have rejected independence, deciding to remain part
of the United Kingdom after a historic referendum that shook the country
to its core.The decision prevented a rupture of a 307-year
union with England, bringing a huge sigh of relief to the British
political establishment. Scots voted 55 per cent to 45 per cent against independence in a vote that saw an unprecedented turnout. .....

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Even if we are a bit too cynical and feel that (a) the appeal for Alan Henning by British Imams and muslim organizations is an exercise in public relations (not in my name etc.) and that (b) the Caliphate folks are unlikely to listen to anyone (heck, even Al Qaeda has requested them to let the hostages go free), the important point still remains that a man is (maybe) alive now, he will certainly be dead later. If it really helped we would recommend sorcery and magic (not really).

.... It is a terrible time for his family as they live in zero hope from day to day. Our sympathies would be meaningless, so the best we can do is watch and wait in silence.
...............Henning,
a taxi driver, was kidnapped within 30 minutes of crossing from Turkey
into Syria. He had volunteered to drive an ambulance full of medical aid
as part of a community-funded charity trip organised by volunteers from
Bolton, England, and the UK Arab Society.

God save the Queen & her United Kingdom on this momentous day. Niall Ferguson makes a wonderful point that Scotland is AfPak (Afghanistan is the highlands, Pakistan the theocratic lowlands) and England is sort of India. Who knows maybe one days we can re-confederate and Scotland staying demonstrates the precedent, Unity is the principal principle of this new age of mankind.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Delwar Hossain Sayedee is the Nayeb-e-Ameer (Vice President) of Jamaat-e-Islami of Bangladesh and has been accused of war crimes (mostly against Hindu civilians) in 1971. He was awarded the death penalty which has now been down-graded to life in prison.
.....

....This, in our opinion, is a good (but not fair) ruling. Bangladesh urgently needs a working compromise between people who swear by Partition-I (freedom from Bengali Hindu oppression) and those who are loyal to Partition-II (freedom from Punjabi Muslim oppression). People (Bengali Muslims) need to forgive and forget the past, else more people are dead and broken in the present (total death count from last year's riots was in excess of 100).
...

...What about the (Bengali Hindu) minorities? To our infinite regret we have to agree here with Professor Sharmila Bose (Oxford University). These people are so irrational that they are still clinging on to their bhitey-mati (home and land). However time is not on their side- legal and extra-legal means have been used to grab an estimated 2 million acres as of date (45% of all Hindu owned land). As Professor Abul Barkat(Dhaka University) observes "when it comes to land there is no secularism."

The recorded change in Hindu-Bangladeshi population: 22% (1951), 18.5% (1961), 13.5% (1974), 12.1% (1981), 10.5% (1991), 9.2% (2001) and 8.5% (2011), see below for more details and links. We have faith in history as a (persistent) teacher, the Hindus will eventually get the message and clear out.
......

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

The boy comes out at the sound....Nitai is quick, he has the energy and
focus of an animal filled with itself and itself only.....pushes him
against the mud wall and drives the curve of the blade with all the
force in his combusting being...This time the blood, a thin, lukewarm jet, hits him full on his
face...
...
Earlier it was feudalism. Now it is globalization. Even the so-called elites have very little control over their lives. If you are looking for a profession where you will never run out of clients (and money) try being a psychiatrist. The ones we know have one mile long queues in front of their office- clients suffering from unbearable stress of having great expectations (from ourselves, from our near and dear ones) in an uncertain and unforgiving world.
......

....None of the above excuses the utterly horrific conditions in which peasants continue to lead their lives. If we enjoy living in a liberal democracy (however flawed) and not suffer from armed revolutions the elites will need to share. Every man, woman and child must be guaranteed dignity of life (and labor). To take just one example, all communities (and local governments) should learn from the example set forward by the Sikhs and adopt a no beggar policy.

The days of dividing and misruling are mostly behind us, as the BJP has discovered in the recently held by-poll(s) shocker - losing 9-2 to Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and 3-0 in Uttarakhand and 3-1 in Rajasthan to a Congress party which is supposedly dead and buried. We live in hope for a better tomorrow, but there will be many a (non-fictional) Nitai Das who need help now and are unable to wait.
.....A third of the way through the half-mile walk from the landlord's house
to his hut, Nitai Das's feet begin to sway. Or maybe it is the head-spin
again. He sits down on the lifeless field he has to cross before he can
reach his hut. There isn't a thread of shade anywhere. ...

More than 3 years ago I wrote a piece asking whether Pakistan is a failed state or the Weimar Republic? At that time, i was still an optimist and thought it was probably neither. But I did say at the end: (the original article is at the end of this post, to see it with hyperlinks go to http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2011/03/pakistan-failed-state-or-weimar-republic-omar-ali.html#sthash.0aDDDW0f.dpuf ).

So much for the optimistic version. Since this is a post about Pakistan, it cannot end without some pessimism. The most dangerous element in Pakistan today is not the Islamist fanatics. It is the rise of China. Not because the rise of China threatens Pakistan or because Chinese hyper-capitalism or cheap Chinese products threaten our industry or our social peace or any such thing, but because it may inflate the egos of the military high command to the point that they lose contact with reality and try a high jump for which we are not yet ready (and may never be ready). It’s not that the high jump will get anywhere, but that the attempt may lead us into more trouble than we can handle. Jf 17 thunder I say this because GHQ, for all its pragmatic pretensions, has been known to overestimate their skill and underestimate their opponents. If China was not truly a rising power, and if Pakistan did not have some real assets and advantages, we might have been safer in the long run. But since there is an element of truth in the paknationalists notions about China and the changing global balance of power, they may lose their balance. All I am saying is GHQ is prone to flying off on a self-generated hot air pocket even when the situation does not encourage such optimism. When the situation actually has some positive aspects, there may be no restraining them. But, I remain an optimist. I think our own weaknesses may protect us from the fate of a much stronger and more capable country (Germany in 1940).

This year, things have taken a turn for the worse. According to a report (written months ago, so not cooked up after the event), a plan was hatched in London to depose Nawaz Sharif and bring in a new government under the supervision of the army. Who knows what the real details of the plot are (it may be that the army chief, for example, was not involved, but only some generals and retired adventurers put the script together) but it hit a snag on 14th August when Imran Khan failed to deliver his promised 100,000 motorcyclists to the "Azadi March". But not to be deterred by poor crowds, he has kept up the show and the civilian institutions of the state have failed to establish their writ in spite of court orders and blatant violations of the law by Imran Khan and Qadri (including a raid on a police station by Imran Khan himself, to free PTI workers being held there). Whether this failure is due to incompetence, collusion or fear of the army (likely all three), the insistent drumbeat of speeches (and their 24-7 amplification by most news channels) in Islamabad continues and the central government looks weak and ineffectual in spite of the support of most established political parties. This is not necessarily considered a negative in Pakistan, where the government, the police, the courts and the political parties are all corrupt to varying degrees and all have their hand in robbing and insulting the citizenry on a daily basis. In fact, some leftists (and not just leftists) who are not necessarily fans of Imran Khan or Qadri cannot help but be delighted by the scenes of policemen getting beaten up and "high authorities" looking like fools.

"sorry....You should go back....You should apologise.... You should be ashamed...250 passengers have
suffered....It is your fault, sir" ....."Malik sahab, you are not a minister any more....And even if you are, we don't care...Anymore"....
..
A most refreshing bit of news out of Pakistan. The golden rule is that the planes must wait, the traffic must halt, the queues must give way for the elite class in South Asia. This is especially true if the man (it is usually a man) has taken a public vow to serve the public. Cheers are due when the suffering commoners take a stand against their high-handed overlords. It will be even better if this causes people to introspect. Bravo!!!
...

......Angry passengers on board a PIA flight stopped former interior minister
Rehman Malik and a Hindu lawmaker of the ruling PML-N from boarding the
plane, accusing them of causing over two hours of delay...The Islamabad-bound Pakistan International Airlines flight PK-370 from
Karachi was delayed by two and a half hours yesterday as it kept
waiting for the arrival of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) senator Malik
and National Assembly member Dr Ramesh Kumar Wakwani.

Monday, September 15, 2014

....Our actors work there...our musicians
have been popular there.....does that mean we have to
modify our content to suit their tastes?....If only the answer was a simple
binary choice.....One cannot peel away all the layers of history within a
single article....money is as real today as
it was in 1947........Adi Abdurab (head screenwriter for the TV series Burka Avenger) has raised an important question which has implications on cross-border cultural exchanges (and the impact thereof).
...

...... [ref. Wiki] Burka Avenger is a multi-award winning Pakistani animated television series created and directed by famous Pakistani rock star and social activist, Aaron Haroon Rashid. The show features Jiya, an "inspirational teacher" whose alter ego is a burka-wearing superheroine. Jiya uses "Takht Kabaddi", a special martial art
that incorporates books and pens, to fight crime. The Urdu language series first aired on 28 July 2013. ....... Our feeling is that Adi Sahib is unduly worried about Pakistani culture losing its way and getting merged with India, though we agree that Pakistanis have the right to be paranoid.

The PTV serials which are making waves in India are doing so because of fascination with a conservative culture and old-fashioned Punjabi, which appeals to an older generation in North India (and may also appeal to youngsters looking for something different).As such these productions already meet the "something different to digest instead of the same drudgery" standard that Adi claims to be aspiring for.
....

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is making waves with their women-focused initiatives. In India it is the 200 Crore (3.27176 million dollars) Toilets for School Girls initiative announced in August (since then Bharti Airtel has also pledged 200C, many many thanks are due to all contributors).

In Saudi Arabia the goal is to help women (who are presently unable to step out of the house without a male relative) to be trained in "communications, presentation skills,
corporate etiquette, global culture and MS Excel skills" and encourage them to join the brave new world of back-office workers who may not be male and who are not relatives (but presumably still virtual and kosher).
..... Indian IT bellwether TCS Sunday opened the first
all-women back office centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in partnership
with GE and Saudi Aramco.The 3,200-square metre business process centre will offer jobs for
3,000 Saudi women for customers like oil major Saudi Aramco and the
US-based General Electric (GE) in the desert kingdom over the next three
years. ...

Sunday, September 14, 2014

......Shiva, dressed in a burgundy
sari and a shawl the color of rust....“We would
have no hunger in the world if the seed was in the hands of the farmers....They want to take that away”.....Shiva argues that the prevailing model of industrial
agriculture....places an
unacceptable burden on the Earth’s resources....Shiva has contempt for farmers who plant monocultures....“They are ruining the planet.....They are
destroying this beautiful world”....
....The list of power ladies from India who carry high name recognition in the West (and the rest) reads as follows: (1) Arundhati Roy, (2) Vandana Shiva, (3) Sonia Gandhi, and (4) Mother Teresa. For people keeping score we have (3) christians and (1) brahmin, also (2) are naturalized citizens.

How about the others? Indira Gandhi is probably fading from memory, even as Mayawati rises as a Dalit icon (she will need to capture the Red Fort for true greatness). We are guessing that not too many westerners know about Indra Nooyi and other corporate bosses.

Indian music and dance do not have (yet) a female Ravi Shankar, even though his first wife Annapurna Devi (born Roshanara Khan, daughter of Alauddin Khan) was more talented and stopped performing because of the unhappiness expressed by her husband. The Shankar progeny Geetali Norah Jones Shankar and Anoushka Shankar would (at most) be recognized as Americans with Indian influences.

Saturday, September 13, 2014

....Rekha, student of Class X, resisted marriage when 10 years old......Since the time many girls came forward to oppose
the practice.....a Class V textbook of the State Board has a chapter on child
marriage where her and another girl's names feature........“Such stories encourage adolescents to protest against child marriage” .....Asadur Rahaman, UNICEF in West Bengal....
...
India is a land of the disadvantaged with a few creamy layers enjoying the fruits of a globalized economy. There are many ways to alter the status quo: Arundhati Roy favors armed revolution (because non-violence as preached by Gandhi - a humbug in her words - is a non-starter). This may still happen if Indians at the bottom of the ladder are left to rot with no helping hand from the fortunate class.
......

...
The first step towards emancipation begins with the freedom to vote and to speak (and India is an imperfect example of these principles as applied to the real world). Gradually there would be an increase in awareness of rights (and responsibilities) as citizens, of which the right to education must rank first along with roti, kapda and makaan. A few, new Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkars will need to come forward to arise and awake their communities (because other communities/castes will not care if they are left behind).

We sincerely hope that Rekha and her fellow sisters will take the non-violent revolution forward. We need many more voices in support of education (and against child marriage). Parents must be convinced to raise daughters as equal to sons. We want all the fundamentalists (of all colors and stripes) to back off. As women progress, we are sure that they will lead the country forward to a better place.
......

....The killer says: “This British man has to pay the price to arm the Peshmerga against the Islamic State.....he
has spent a decade of his life serving under the Royal Air Force.....“Your evil alliance with America continues to strike the
Muslims of Iraq .....playing the role of the obedient
lapdog will only drag you into another bloody
and unwinnable war”....At the end of the latest video, another hostage – apparently British – is paraded......
....
The Maida Vale killer strikes again. David Haines has been reportedly beheaded. DCH was a British (Scottish) aid worker who was (we presume) trying to help out the miserable people of Syria, his family must be wondering why they agreed to this labor of love in the first place.
......

......
A number of critical questions will be asked (and re-asked): What was David Haines...who has a military background...really doing in Syria? Should Britain and the USA consider paying ransom to terrorists? What will happen to the Brits and Americans still being held hostage (yes, we know)?

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

..In Bollywood’s rain songs....the heroine discovering herself.....The rain is a crossroads in a woman’s
life where she throws caution to the monsoon winds and locks hands with a
man she chooses....she defies elders...for her bit of bliss...Against this backdrop, the current drought of Bollywood’s wet saris
is a matter of concern. ...
...Srijana Mitra Das clearly has impeccable credentials, a PhD in Social Anthropology from Cambridge. And what do you know...the (in)famous rain songs in Bollywood....the heroines and their wet sarees.....a tradition of spotlighting male lust going all the way back to Kalidasa in the 5th century.....now we have a feminist (third wave?) deconstruction...all these are but symbols of "pure romance" and women's liberation....
.......

.....We are a fan of old Bollywood songs (the play-acting not so much) but the ones that Srijana talks of are indeed screen classics: Raj Kapoor and Nargis in Shree 420 (Pyar Hua Ikrar Hua) and Amitabh Bachhan and Smita Patil in Namak Halal (Aaj Rapat Jaye). And while we are not too familiar with Nargis as a free-thinker, Smita was a top-drawer feminist and her acting reflected this in full glory. Her millions of devotees were heart-broken when she died so young (see below for details).
.......